


The Graveyard

by AstridRaine



Category: The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Comfort, Crying, Cute Ending, Emotions, M/M, One-Shot, POV Outsider, but also cute, graveyard, kinda angsty, solangelo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-02
Updated: 2019-05-02
Packaged: 2020-02-10 12:27:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,768
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18660439
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AstridRaine/pseuds/AstridRaine
Summary: Nothing interesting ever happens in a graveyard, at least that's what Marcus thinks until he sees the boy. Suddenly, Marcus's entire life and thoughts take a sharp turn and he isn't sure that's a good thing or not.OrThe Outsider POV no one asked for yet everyone shall receive





	The Graveyard

Marcus specifically never liked his job from the beginning. After all, not many people would choose to work in a graveyard as their main career, Marcus was just unlucky that way.

He had been working this job for over a year now and his age was definitely showing in the deep wrinkles around his eyes and the way he limped on his bad leg with a hunched back. This was not what he had in mind when he thought about retiring.

He stuck his spade on the ground harshly and patted it to make sure it won't tip over. Wiping his brow with one hand, he turned toward the weak rays of the sun setting over the rolling green hills far away, night was falling and Marcus always felt uncomfortable staying at the graveyard past dusk, he was being stupid but he swore he was being watched, like the dead corpses lying beneath him in the dirt were actually watching him. He shook the thoughts away as a shiver passed over him and was just about to take his spade back to the rickety old shed on the other side and call it a day when he heard the most peculiar sound ever.

It sounded like someone crying but also someone trying not to cry. Marcus had heard the sound plenty of times before, but why would any sane person want to visit a graveyard during the late hours of the evening? Are they crazy?

He crept quietly past the rows of old gravestones and tried to locate the source of the crying, now that he could hear it properly it sounded almost like soft sobs that the owner of them tried to hold back but to no avail. Finally he passed an especially crumbling tombstone (he felt bad for the person buried there, their family hadn't even visited them once) and saw a young man, no  _boy,_ on his knees in front of two twin stones sitting side by side, his face in his hands and his long black hair falling all over his concealed face. Marcus leaned closer in an effort to see who this strange boy was when he accidentally stepped on a stray twig. 

 _SNAP._ The boy's head jerked up, his hair falling over his eyes (which was just as equally dark) and his hand crept to his pocket, for some reason. "Who's there?" He called out in a loud voice. He sounded hoarse and defeated, his eyes seemed to hold infinite sadness and grief. Marcus wondered just what had happened to this boy for him to look this way, but he didn't dare show himself and ask. Instead, he kept quiet and pressed himself further into the shadow of the leaning trees all around him and held his breath. 

After a while, the boy sighed and heavily got to his feet. "I'll be back next month," Marcus heard him promise the two headstones in front of him, before striding past Marcus's hiding spot, still looking suspiciously all around him, his hand never leaving his pocket. 

Marcus let out his breath in a  _whoosh_ when he was sure the boy had left the graveyard before creeping over to the two headstones sitting innocently, squinting a bit (and cursing himself for not thinking to bring his reading glasses) Marcus read the names before him. 

_Maria di Angelo and Bianca di Angelo_

***

The next time Marcus saw the mysterious looking boy was right the exact same time, the exact same date except a month later. He remembered the boy saying that he'll be back next month and Marcus made sure to finish his duties before the boy arrived. This strange boy interested him and he wanted to know what horrible thing had happened to a boy who looked so young. He shook his head disgustedly, the people in the world these days, utterly useless and fake. No wonder a kid like him held such sadness. 

He stood in his usual hiding spot and watched raptly, waiting for the boy to arrive. It wasn't every day when you get to see and hear interesting stuff like this, working in a graveyard is so boring. You don't even get the daily gossip, not that Marcus ever did in the first place. 

The boy came right on time and this time, he held a bouquet of lilies. He was still wearing the same attire he wore last month, ripped skinny jeans and a black bomber jacket over a ratty black t-shirt with a painted skull on it. Damn, this kid would blend right in with the graveyard, no one would even give him a second glance. 

The boy gently placed the bouquet in between the two stones and knelt down beside them. Softy, he began to talk, just random things like describing his day, he mentioned a guy named Percy Jackson a couple of times and whenever he did, his expression would always morph into a mix of fond exasperation and annoyance. After a while, his voice slowly dwindled until he was just staring at the stones in front of him, and his shoulders began to shake, a hand running through his hair. 

Marcus decided to leave him alone. After all, emotions were much better to let out in solitude, especially when it came to a loved one. 

After that, he noticed the boy quite often. Every month on the spot the boy would be there, wearing his same old jeans and jacket with the skull-faced t-shirt. His ebony hair falling lazily over his dark eyes as he leaned forward sometimes in earnest during his talks. Sometimes he brought a bag, which Marcus realized was food from McDonald's. He had thought that the boy was going to eat it while he talked, but instead, the boy simply took out the food from the plastic bag and placed them gently in between the two stones, just like he had with the lilies. 

Marcus decided to not to question it. People did weird things during bouts of grief. 

He wondered just who were these women to the boy. Were they family? Friends? Couldn't be a lover, the boy looked far too young for that. Unless that was the kind of thing kids nowadays get up to. 

The kid was really something, sometimes he would come with fresh scratches across his face, or other times the boy would take off the giant bomber jacket and expose his pale arms that looked like sticks if Marcus was being honest. He wondered what the kid's diet was, he certainly looked like he should be eating more. 

Sometimes, when things got a little too rough with the boy and he cried for a while, Marcus wanted to walk over and comfort him. It was crazy! He was never one for comfort, his wife knew it (that was why they had divorced), his daughters knew it (that was why they barely talk anymore). It's just something he physically and mentally wasn't capable of doing.

At the last moment he stopped himself, this kid looked like he was well capable enough to fucking kill him with just his glare. Even though Marcus was actually just a head taller than him, he knew this kid could pack one hell of a punch if he wanted to, and he had a feeling that that was exactly what he would get if this kid spotted him spying. 

After a particularly trying day, the kid wiped his eyes quickly and said the usual goodbyes and promises to visit next month and marched away. 

Except he didn't come back next month. Or the month after that. 

Marcus waited at his hiding spot and nope, no black haired pale boy in sight. Where was he? This kid didn't look like someone who would break promises. It had been more than two months and Marcus actually felt worried for the kid. 

Why? He chided himself, he didn't even know the kid, heck, not one word had been exchanged between them so why was he feeling so nervous that something had happened to the young man? He must really be going crazy, maybe it was his age rearing its ugly head. 

***

He was just shoveling the dirt back on a freshly buried coffin when he heard voices, they were murmurs but with the quiet of the graveyard, any whisper would be heard as a shout for Marcus. He quietly put down his shovel so as not to alert the others with his presence and snuck a glance to the sky. The sky was streaked with colors of a summer sunset, purples oranges reds, and yellows that molded together into a beautiful combination. 

Could it be? But no it can't, there were clearly two voices, not one. 

Marcus subtly tried to peek past the overhang of vines and trees and saw the same boy from before finally come back but this time he wasn't along, another boy was following me while talking expressively with his hands. He was blond with tanned skin as if he had spent every day of his life in the sun, and when he turned to nudge the other boy lightly, Marcus saw that his eyes were blue like the sky, homely yet tense. Who was this guy? Was he friends with the other boy? Why had he never seen him before until now?

The two boys stopped in front of the designated spot in front of the two headstones and the blond one raised a slight brow at the pile of McDonald's in between but clearly decided not to talk about it. Marcus thought that was a good idea too, grief is a complicated emotion and one cannot easily try to analyze it, not even by a close shot. 

Then the black haired boy knelt down and seemed to pull out another bouquet of flowers out of nowhere and just like before, placed it gently in between the two headstones as usual. The blond knelt down beside him and wrapped an arm around the black-haired boy with such care that it shocked even Marcus. He didn't think it was possible that someone could even be that gentle to another person. He felt something in his hard heart ache and for the first time in a while, he wished that he had tried harder to preserve his and his wife's marriage.

Watching the two boys, he felt this was too much of an intimate moment to watch and was about to back away when he saw the black haired boy get up and hold out a hand for the blond. After both boys got up, Marcus didn't fail to notice that neither of them let go of their intertwined grasp. A realization hit Marcus so hard that he nearly staggered, this was no friendship, no, this was something much more, much more intimate and frankly,  _beautiful._

He didn't know what to make of it though. What these two boys had was something to be cherished, like delicate china, and he of all the people hated to intrude, what with his shitty marriage and life so far. But an old conservative part of him wanted to feel disgusted at seeing the two boys leaning close together as if they were trying to mold into one and murmuring quietly amongst themselves. But he can't. And that part should've scared him, but for some reason, it didn't. 

When the hell did he turn so accepting?

He didn't know how long he stood there, motionless and deep in his thoughts but when the two boys in front of him turned around in the direction of the old iron-wrought gate leading out of the cemetery, he flicked his gaze back to their still intertwined hands. How brave must these boys be to live in such an unforgiving world full of judgment and still be proud of what they were as a whole? And why couldn't Marcus be the same way?

He didn't know what he was thinking, but his body seemed to move first before his mind could catch up and he stepped out from his hiding spot. 

The blond one jumped at seeing Marcus pop up seemingly out of nowhere while the black haired one merely raised an eyebrow before adopting a blank expression. Marcus frowned, maybe the kid didn't scare easily. 

"What are you doing here?" Asked the black haired one suspiciously, one hand traveling back into his pocket. The blond one gently placed a hand on his arm to stop the movement and the two boys looked at one another and seemed to have some sort of silent conversation spoken only through their eyes and Marcus envied their easy communication and how they could read each other so easily, were him and his wife like that? He couldn't remember. 

The black haired boy finally sighed and the blond one turned to Marcus with a smile that was so sunny that Marcus blinked, it was like staring at the literal sun. "Hi, I'm Will, who are you? Do you work here?"

Marcus gave the boy an appraising look before grunting out, "Marcus and I'm the keeper of this graveyard."

"Must be kinda tedious right? Neeks over here, would feel right at home with this kind of job eh?" He joked and nudged the now scowling black haired boy who muttered a nearly inaudible "shut it, Solace," under his breath. 

"Er, yeah it kinda is," Marcus scratched his head, he just couldn't figure these two boys out. Looking from Will's wide grin and 'Neeks' annoyed scowl, he wondered just how two people who looked and acted so different ended up dating one another. 

"Well," Will said when the silence got a bit too awkward, "we better get going, lots of things to do, people to see, monsters to beat up."

 _Wait, what?_ Marcus must've heard wrong,  _monsters?_

'Neeks' quickly grabbed Will's arm and began to drag him off, "you're such an idiot, Solace," he muttered something else under his breath that was quiet just so Will could only hear and the blond smiled and said, "but I'm your idiot."

'Neeks' blinked before sighing and giving a short kiss to the now delighted looking blond before saying with unmistakable fondness, "yes you are Sunshine."

Marcus wouldn't deny that he nearly gave a very manly squeal. 

Before the two boys left, however, the black haired boy stopped and turned back to Marcus, he gave him a once-over before turning his gaze to the two headstones that they both had walked away from. Then he firmly set his mouth in a straight line and whispered something to the blond and marched back to Marcus with his eyes blazing. Marcus forced himself not to flinch, what had happened this time?

'Neeks' stopped in front of Marcus and didn't say anything for a while, he looked like he was stealing himself to say something that he didn't want to say and Marcus waited with bated breath. 

Finally, "take care of them will you?" the mutter was soft and Marcus would have missed it if he wasn't paying so much attention to the boy in front of him who was suddenly looking at his feet, he didn't need to indicate who he was talking about, Marcus just knew. 

"I'll take care of them, lad, I promise," Marcus said, trying not to get choked up at the sight of such pure emotion in the boy's near black irises when he looked back up. The boy for the first time gave Marcus a smile, it was small but it was still there and Marcus gave the kid a smile of his own as well. 

The boy then turned back to the gravestones and then, like he was saying goodbye, he turned away decisively and hurried back to his boyfriend who was waiting for him, no doubt probably asking what that was all about. 'Neeks' simply took his hand and the two of them exited the cemetery and ambled away, Marcus could see the blond chatting a mile a minute and the black haired boy listening intently and nodding. 

He watched the boys for a couple more minutes before turning to face the two stones, the vines all around them swaying gently like a song in the warm breeze. He couldn't help feeling the lightness in his chest and decided that age was not a restriction and vowed to make things right with his wife, maybe a call to his daughters would be in order too. Who knew a pair of boys would change his entire lifestyle without them even doing a thing?

_I promise._

**Author's Note:**

> Soooo my first Solangelo one-shot and it actually turned out not that bad. I wanted to do an Outsider POV just because I thought it would be a nice change! Hope y'all enjoyed!
> 
> ~Astrid
> 
> Check out my tumblr @scorpittariusslytherdor


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